The buyer booked two Velocity flights on my behalf. However, within five minutes of the booking, the tickets were cancelled by Virgin Australia (VA).
I immediately attempted to contact the buyer. The buyer attributed the cancellation to a VA system issue. Based on my experience, VA always sends an email notification for cancellations, but the buyer refused to provide this email. I then discovered that the WhatsApp number the buyer had registered was invalid, making direct communication impossible. Since the buyer had previously sent me flight-related emails, I resorted to communicating via email.
The buyer became uncooperative, refusing to issue a refund and claiming that the tickets had already been issued. Consequently, I reported the incident to my bank and the police. At this point, the buyer retaliated, threatening me and claiming their account was suspended due to a booking link I provided. I explained to the buyer that the booking link was directly from the official Virgin Australia website, not a third party, and that I could verify this. I stressed that if there was an issue with the link, they should address it with VA directly. The buyer remained uncooperative.
The buyer then stated that their account was blocked and they would only refund me once VA returned the points to them. I explained that if the issue genuinely stemmed from my side, I would wait for VA to return their points before receiving my money back. However, I am aware that VA typically only suspends accounts for one reason: ineligible family member points transfer. I checked the buyer's transaction history and found that they had engaged in VA points transfers with other buyers from "classic filed" in January and February. I am confident that this is the reason for their account suspension. VA will undoubtedly require proof of family relationship for these transfers, which the buyer cannot provide. Therefore, they will be unable to reclaim their points. I also clarified to the buyer that these issues are a direct result of their actions and are beyond my control or ability to resolve.
The buyer has not responded to my messages since and continues to refuse to provide any emails from VA. @Joykayut
I'd like to clarify some serious misunderstandings and misrepresentations in this post.
OP approached me and convinced me that points transfer is risky and I should instead book flights for them. They then proceed to provide direct VA links and asked me to use those to make the booking.
Even though they never asked if the account had any non family points transfer and were too eager to get the bookings done, I can confirm the account only had family transfer and no flight bookings prior.
I was not promoting or soliciting flight bookings but was convinced to use direct links by OP and simply helped to facilitate the bookings via VA account.
After making the bookings, I was notified of suspicious activity by VA, and the account was blocked which had double the amount of points as compared to those used by OP. I have followed up with VA but haven't received any updates.
To make matters worse, despite the fact that the links and request originated from OP, they contacted their bank the same day to reverse the funds, leaving me without the money or the points, and with my account under investigation and currently suspended.
At no point did I act with malicious intent. I acted based on the information and links given to me.
OP has chosen to make accusations while refusing to take any responsibility.
OPs seems to be involved in multiple similar bookings, providing embedded VA links which suggests they are using points to book flight for others (in this case someone overseas) for commercial purposes.
I don't endorse public slamming but wanted to make my point clear.
I have committed to OP that as far as they act in good faith, if I am able to recover points I will refund them but at this stage I don't have the funds neither my VA account.
The man the myth the legend.
Likely irrelevant, I provide the search link for a particular flight I'm looking at to family and friends all the time. It speeds up the process.
For example:
https://book.virginaustralia.com/dx/VADX/#/flight-selection?…
Can you share the email?
Sharing a search link has nothing to do with reselling the booking for commercial purposes.
wow
"Seriously, I've been trying to get an update from you for a whole month, and you're just not responding. I've been really patient!"
"So, if VA doesn't give you back your points because of this points transfer relationship mess, are you actually planning on keeping my money? Because every time I ask that, you go completely silent!"
"Look, VA investigations usually wrap up in about 30 days. I'm positive you've already gotten an email from them asking for proof of those points transfers relationship. They wouldn't drag an investigation out past 30 days without saying anything, so what are you hiding?"
"Good faith means we're both sharing updates, right? But you haven't told me anything about this whole situation. What kind of 'good faith' are you even talking about or expecting from me?"
" i dont even want to explain the link that you mentioned. use your mind please. "
Hi OP
You were the buyer - buying points has a risk, you should knew about it.
Buyer has more to lose.
Seller also can lose out, when their Velocity account suspended with plenty remaining balance inside. Unless there is no more points in there.
Bottom line is - regardless what seller did in his past selling history. You ultimately buying points, and it is already against TnCs
em…if not involve in points transfer, he got nothing to lose. VA allow to book for someone, even they ask, as long as no points transfer in relate to unknown people. the account will be easy to take back. but in this situation, the seller can't get the account back is due to his pass selling history, and he blame on me. what is this for? i do take the risk if it due to my reason to cause his account suspended. i would never say anthing, the only thing that i was risking is people's trust. not putting everyone's account in risk. so i post to saying the mistake that i took. shouldn't I?
That's a bit rich when you clearly have posts on this forum buying and selling VA points.
Seriously? You're an adult. Nobody forced you to do anything. You got paid for this, so let's not play the unwitting victim card.
Even if your account was flagged by VA because of the OP's booking, it's your history of sketchy point transfers that's really landed you in hot water. It is not against the Velocity T&C to make a reward booking for someone else, but it is clearly against the T&C to transfer points between people who are not family members.
It's like this: If you've been driving around with illegal things in your car for months (your history of problematic point transfers). Then, your friend asks you to give them a ride to the airport (make a booking for them) and then you get randomly pulled over - that doesn't make it your friend's fault that your illegal activites were uncovered. Their request just put you in a situation where your pre-existing, non-compliant behavior was exposed.
i think you might need to show the email that VA sent to you to Clarify yourslef to do business again in Classfiled. VA will definetly tell you what documents you need to provide to unlock your account and get the points back. so far as i know, ticket is cancelled straight away will only relate to points issue. due to VA is allowed to book for someone. Booking for someone is not breaking T&C, but if you do have points transfer from other people that you dont know, then no way you can get the account back.
you offer service, you need to make sure the condition is good to use. it is just me unlucky, it could be anyone in this forum step into your trap. and now you've crossed your own moral bottom line, and then you're trying to cover it all up with baseless accusations. Shame on you, seriously.
"IT'S A TRAP"
My Velocity account history being quoted here was visible even before the OP even approached me andnasked me to make bookings. They deliberately chose not to clarify anything upfront, knowing that if problems arose, they could conveniently shift blame onto the account holder. Why ask these questions now? OP knew if there are any problems they will claim that as an issue of the account holder and will use threatening, harassing and public slamming tactics.
The OP suggested that I make the booking using the embedded links they provided. The bookings were for someone else to fly from China to Washington DC. Shortly after, VA cancelled those bookings citing "suspicious activity" flagged by their fraud monitoring system.
OP is happy to profit when things go smoothly asking others to make bookings on their behalf, but if there are any issues they label others as scammers and want full refund. Their own words say it all: “Even if I broke VA's T&Cs, that's one thing. It doesn't negate the fact that he scammed me.” Convenient logic.
I should have been careful, particularly given their account was only three months old and appeared to be created to transact in Velocity points.There are several of such travel agents who are highly skilled at operating these third party bookings and use pressure tactics to get their money back if things go wrong.
Someone shared an analogy earlier. Analogies can be helpful, but they often overlook critical facts and lead to misleading impressions. Here's another one - If someone hands me a package to take through airport security and I get detained, their role in providing that package is highly relevant. The OP insisted for me to make bookings, provided the links, asked me to use my credit card, orchestrated each step of the booking, and now do not want to take any liability. I have lost double the amount of points as well as the funds - not playing the victim card.
Velocity has not provided any further updates. They’ve advised investigations can take up to 30 business days, which means VA should send a response by mid-July
Although I’ve lost double the amount of points used for this booking, I have no intention of holding fraudulent funds.
I instructed my bank last week to transfer the funds back to the OP's bank account. However, from what I understand, their bank flagged the transaction and is currently investigating the source and purpose of funds in OPs account. Thanks
dare to share the email that VA sent to you onced you received? when i ask you two weeks ago for update, silence, when i ask you a week ago, still silence. and now you choose to answer this question. and also you still not answering my question: "if your account is not recoverable due to you points transfer issue. are you still going to keep my money? and what reason you are going to keep my money? "
refund transaction do not need to instruct your bank. keep lying.
the points is what did i do wrong, you post to sell VA, and i ask to buy, no matter how i use it. you got the money i got the points. it doesn't mean you can blame me due to you put your account in risk to do the point transfer and it affect my ticket. what did i do wrong on this transaction you need to keep my money?
if you do care what i use for you can stop at the very first begining when i send you the details. but you only ask for money. always money first before booking. so stop changing the subject and throw people off the scent:
Recipient's bank involvement:
If the funds are still available, the recipient's bank will likely place a temporary hold on the funds and give the recipient a chance to prove they are entitled to the money
do you really understand what you are talking, what package did i give to you ?( the booking link?) then post here let people check see if it contains anything. also send to VA ask for the link investigation. keep making up reasons. you dont even have evidence. but VA emial will show very clearly that you can't get your account back is becasue you are not able to prove the points transfer relationship.
Lol, we should separate things into two parts.
First, what the OP blames you for here is that you took his money but didn't fully offer the services.
Second, what you blame the OP for is the link issue and the purpose he used the points for.
So, the easiest way to solve this is to prove that the link you got had an issue. Could you? Someone already mentioned above that the booking search link is from the Virgin website. You can post the link so the IT techs here can see if there's any issue with it.
But should you worry about the purpose of how they were used? If you really cared about the purpose, you shouldn't have taken his money at the very beginning, not just noticed now that an issue has happened. So, these are two different things. You can't mix them up.
show evidence. not just use your imagination.
👀